When the immediate past Sports Minister, Senator John Owan Enoh, assumed office last year, he promised to do everything within his powers to resuscitate the National Stadium, Lagos, which was once acknowledged as the best sporting facility in Sub-Saharan Africa. He said that if it meant bringing down the whole structure to rebuild it, he would do that to ensure that Nigeria has a befitting sports facility like most developed countries of the world. However, a year after that pronouncement, CHRISTIAN OKPARA writes that the facility has deteriorated such that some of the revamped parts have started disintegrating again.

The National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, is collapsing. The edifice, acclaimed as the best sporting facility in Sub-Sahara Africa when it was opened for the 1973 African Games in 1972, is gradually disintegrating with some of its parts falling apart, and others showing signs of giving up.

Almost one year after the immediate past Sports Minister, Senator John Owan Enoh, said that his ministry would look for ways to restore the stadium to its pride of place as one of Africa’s most reverred sporting arenas, the structure has deteriorated to the extent that if nothing urgent is done to halt the decay, the damage to the structure could be such that the government would find it difficult to muster the resources to repair.

Worst still, some parts of the structure resuscitated through a private sector partnership have started giving way as well. These include the tartan track and the football pitch inside the main bowl.

When a former Sports Minister, Sunday Dare, assumed office in 2019, one of his major projects was getting the National Stadium, Lagos, and the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abuja, back into shape to host national and international competitions.

Dare was able to get private individuals to key into his adopt-a-facility programme, with Alhaji Aliko Dangote of the Dangote Group electing to fix the National Stadium in Abuja. That facility was renovated on time to host some international competitions, including Nigeria’s 2022 World Cup qualifier against Ghana, which the Super Eagles lost to the Black Stars.

But the facility in Lagos had far deeper problems, with almost all the appurtenances at different stages of disrepair.

Thus was the situation when popular philanthropist, Chief Kessington Adebutu, decided to renovate the facility as part of his contributions to the country’s sports development.

According to an official of the sports ministry, Chief Adebutu completely re-laid the football pitch, tartan track, and scoreboard with over $1 million spent on facilities listed.

With the tartan track and football pitch back in shape, the Federal Government was expected to fix the terraces, as the seats and some of the other facilities are completely worn out. Dare projected that the edifice would be in good shape to start hosting competitions in the third quarter of 2022.

Unfortunately, he could not meet his projection due mainly to a lack of resources to carry out the job.

When The Guardian visited the stadium recently, it discovered that due to disuse, parts of the new grass pitch have gone bad, while cracks are appearing on the tartan track.

A staff of the Federal Ministry of Sports, who pleaded anonymity, told The Guardian that the stadium management was forced to allow an academy to start training on the pitch in a bid to halt its deterioration.

“We discovered that we were just cutting the grass every now and then because nobody was using it. As you know, if you don’t put the facility to use, it will go bad. It was a waste of time and manpower to be cutting the grass when it grows while the facility was not in use,” he said.

The official, however, failed to explain why some parts of the pitch have gone bald less than one year after it was re-grassed.

When contacted, the Stadium Manager, Mrs Fatimo Adebanjo, refused to speak on the state of the facility, directing The Guardian to the Director of Sports in charge of the Lagos Liaison Office of the Federal Ministry of Sports Development, Mrs Nkana Mbora, who was said to be out of town.

But another staff of the ministry, who pleaded anonymity, disclosed that things started going south when one of the floodlights in the main bowl of the stadium crashed last year.

“After that unfortunate incident, then Sports Minister, Sunday Dare, came to inspect the damage and promised that the Federal Government would address the situation. Unfortunately, he could not do anything until he left office with President Muhammadu Buhari’s exit.

“Later, some senior officials came to remove the remaining roof of the stadium, alongside the aluminium and iron frame while giving the impression that they would refurbish the roof with modern facilities estimated to cost N350 million. That was late last year, but nothing has been done at that level.

“The stadium officials also removed the damaged floodlight and the other ones still standing and sold them as scraps. According to them, the ministry would install more modern floodlights that would befit the status of the stadium as centre of sporting excellence. That has not happened.”

According to the official, the removal of the aluminium roof around the stadium has resulted in the offices located within the main bowl always being flooded whenever there is a downpour.

“So, because of that, most of those using the offices have moved out, leaving the space for miscreants, who have now turned them into their homes.

“Again, the stadium has become one big driving school where people come to learn how to drive. When Minister Enoh visited the stadium, he said that he would bring down the facility if that is what it would take to restore the glory of the edifice. But he did not return to the stadium until he was recently reassigned to another ministry.

“We don’t need too much money to rehabilitate the stadium. Some engineers came here and said that all the stadium needs is re-enforcement of the structure. Nigeria cannot build a stadium as big and encompassing as this one because we simply do not have the money.”

Apart from the main bowl of the stadium, the other facilities, including the indoor sports hall and the surrounding structures are in their worst state. Worse still, most of the stadium complex has been overgrown by weeds, with the swimming pool managed by a private firm the only area not affected by the rot.

As it was last year when Enoh visited the structure, none of the offices within the stadium complex has electricity, or water supply, even though the Lagos State Water Corporation is just next door to the stadium.

The Guardian learnt that the stadium managers and their clients, who hire any of the functioning facilities like the indoor sports hall, which still hosts basketball games, rent power generators to light up the place when they need to use it.

When contacted, a former senior assistant to the immediate past Sports Minister, Diana Mary Nsan, could not give much insight into the programme (if any) that the defunct sports ministry had for the stadium.

She simply said: “There’s a conssessioning that’s already over 80 per cent done.” She also could not say if the concessioning arrangement was with Chief Kessington or another, but she promised to “get clarification from the minister and get back” to The Guardian. She had yet reverted as at press time.

For one of the tenants in the stadium, whose office was affected by the decay, Effiong Nyong: “There is more to the concessioning of the facility than meets the eye. The Federal Ministry of Sports has undertaken to sell the facility in the name of a concession. The question is, why would the government choose to give out the stadium instead of fixing it? What is the responsibility of the government to its sporting population?

“If the idea is to get public-spirited individuals to join hands with the government, why was the bidding not made public?”

He said the ministry’s ready excuse is that the concession policy was already established before Minister Enoh came on board, adding, “Yes, the wrongprocedures of secrecy were already on, but the minister was advised, but he ignored it because he also had vested interest, otherwise, why is the process not transparent?”

Nyong wondered why the Federal Government is shying away from developing any sports facility, saying that the new National Sports Commission (NSC) should look into that aspect of the nation’s sports development policy.

“Very soon, the Abuja National Stadium would also be sold. Information has it that real estate practitioners have been given the National Stadium, Surulere and very soon the Federal Government will have no stadium. The questions are why and who are the beneficiaries?” He queried.

Continuing, Nyong, a former governorship aspirant in Cross River State, said: “Like everything else, the country is being sold off cheap, and the current administration has it well-planned. First, it set up a task force that lied to Nigerians that it wanted to restore the stadium but started by demolishing structures, driving everyone out, and asking them to relocate to Teslim Balogun Stadium, which is opposite the National Stadium, Surulere. Now, the question is, if the businesses were bad, how come they qualified to be relocated to the stadium opposite?

“After that, the ministry engaged people to break the covered stands and make the place look war-torn and dilapidated before bringing their friends to rescue the dilapidated structures that they had created. This has remained a game, started by Sunday Dare and was being delivered by Senator Owan Enoh before he was removed. It is a crime against Nigeria and Nigerians, especially its youth population. Very soon, parts of the stadium would become residential apartments owned by government people through proxies. That is the Nigeria of today.”

The veteran journalist recalled that about three years ago, “We heard that the ministry under Sunday Dare collected N500 million to fix the facility, but all he did was the field, running tracks, and scoreboard.

“You are forced to ask, is this all they spent half a billion naira on? Can the current minister show what he spent the money on? Is giving out national assets to political associates the answer?”

On the reconstruction of the National Stadium, one of the engineers attached to the firm renovating the Teslim Balogun Stadium, which is opposite the National Stadium, Alhaji A. Lawal, told The Guardian that the Federal Government is going about the job the wrong way.

He said: “What the Federal Government should have done from the beginning was to send engineers from the Federal Ministry of Works to do a thorough assessment of the facility before calling for help from the private sector.

“If the government had done that, it would have known how to go about restoring the facility, and what to sell to those who want to key into the adopt-a-facility program.

“You cannot fix the playing pitch and tartan tracks without thinking of the dressing rooms, toilets, floodlights, and the stands. These are major parts of the main bowl. I hope the new NSC will approach the job the right way.” (The Guardian)